Dragon
by Unidentified Pie
Summary: Sakamoto isn't called the Dragon of Katsurahama for nothing.


"Where are you going?" Gintoki asks, stepping into Sakamoto's path as Sakamoto is about to leave the camp.

"Ahahaha! Kintoki, you noticed?"

Gintoki wouldn't have. He wouldn't, except for the fact that he saw the look in Sakamoto's eyes when information came in that Katsurahama had been attacked. He saw the look on Sakamoto's face when the Joui decided not to spare men to recapture it (Katsurahama isn't in a strategic location; it's in the middle of nowhere, really, just a little passing mention in a scout's report, but Sakamoto looked for a split second like he'd been punched in the gut).

"I grew up in Katsurahama," Sakamoto says, smiling like that explains everything. He has one hand on his sheathed sword and his eyes are made of blue fire.

And dammit, it does explain everything.

Gintoki knew that Sakamoto was from Tosa, but that's it- he didn't know that Sakamoto was from _Katsurahama_.

And of course Sakamoto - fiercely loyal, fiercely kind Sakamoto - would go back. Of _course_ he'd want to help his old friends.

"They've got an entire battalion there," Gintoki says.

Sakamoto laughs. "Ahahaha! That's true!" His eyes meet Gintoki's, and his smile shifts into something else; something resolute, something serious in a way that Sakamoto so rarely is. "But I'm going anyway."

"You're an idiot," Gintoki says.

But when that idiot steps forward to leave, Gintoki follows.

-x-

It takes them a long time to arrive, stealing horses and riding them across bloody plains, sulfur-hot air burning up their noses. Gintoki guesses at least three hours, and Sakamoto laughingly agrees.

"Oi, Bakamoto. When we get there, wait and make a strategy before charging in." It sounds wrong coming from Gintoki, sounds like the sort of thing Zura would say, but Sakamoto is possibly the only soldier more reckless than Gintoki or Takasugi.

Sakamoto just laughs. "Ahaha! Kintoki, I'm not like you or Bakasugi ya know?"

"You're worse," Gintoki says, and Sakamoto laughs.

When they arrive, Katsurahama is burning, there's fighting in the streets, and there's an Amanto by the gate, holding a bloody sword to a wounded man's neck.

And Sakamoto's horse shoots by Gintoki's like a damned bullet, the idiot flying ahead before Gintoki can stop him. Gintoki knew this would happen; of course he did, Sakamoto cares too much to let anyone die, but he still bites out a sharp curse when it happens, a second too late in speeding his horse on.

In a smooth motion, Sakamoto has dismounted. His sword is out, catching the Amanto's blade and wrenching it from the creature's hands in a move that only Gintoki would recognize as desperate.

Gintoki throws himself off his horse and lands with jarring impact, parries a blade that was too damn close to cutting into Sakamoto's back, and swings into the space between the steel and Sakamoto's coat to slam his back into Sakamoto's.

"Watch your damn back," he shouts, cutting down the Amanto in a spray of blood. Sakamoto laughs.

"But I've got you to do it for me!"

There's a roar behind him and Gintoki doesn't need to look to know that Sakamoto's taken out another Amanto.

"Fine," he says. "Watch my back, then."

Sakamoto laughs again, loud and wild. "Of course," he says, and sweeps in low - with an arc of shining steel he cuts the leg off an Amanto before it can ram its sword between Gintoki's ribs.

Gintoki jams his blade up through another Amanto's throat as it's about to gut Sakamoto with a swipe of polished claws-

-and Sakamoto's sword flashes through the air to slam into the last enemy's blade, slicing steel right in two. The Bakafu soldier backs away, unarmed and wary.

"Ahahaha! Don't you wanna call for backup?" Sakamoto calls. "I've got the Shiroyasha here with me, ya know?"

The man's eyes go wide with horror or fear or both, face bleaching of color, and he turns tail, calling for reinforcements.

"Oi, oi," Gintoki says irritably. "Why're you using me as bait, huh?"

"Ahahaha!"

But it was a good idea; the soldiers here aren't likely to attempt taking on the Shiroyasha alone. With the stories of what Gintoki's done, they'll likely gather most of the soldiers in the town, which leaves the civilians with less to worry about.

It also means that the wounded man on the ground should get the hell out of here now. Gintoki turns to the guy, but the man is staring up at them with wide eyes.

"Tatsuma-chan?" He asks, voice gruff and cracking.

"Ahahaha! Old man Dai! Did ya miss me?"

"Why are you here?" he asks, and his voice is pure horror. "Weren't you with your family?"

"I joined the war," Sakamoto says, still smiling. "We came to save you, old man!"

"I thought you said you were a pacifist," the man says, something sad and horrified in his eyes. And it's not new to Gintoki, the laughing declarations of "I'm a pacifist!" right before Sakamoto runs onto the battlefield and kills men, but it hits him hard each time.

Sakamoto just smiles - just as wide, but his eyes are sad.

"I am," he says, as enemies flood in around them.

The soldiers Sakamoto took out aren't dead. One of them's missing an arm and another's short a leg, but they're breathing; Gintoki can see their chests rising and falling in ragged breaths, even as dark blood spills over the dry ground. And it's not smart, it's almost definitely going to bite them in the ass - it means the enemies can get up, come back, and keep killing their friends.

But Gintoki doesn't say a thing. That's not his place, and that's not Sakamoto Tatsuma's sword - Sakamoto is good and loyal and fiercely, fiercely kind, and Gintoki can't take that away.

Instead, he tears out a man's intestines as Sakamoto stabs an Amanto in the stomach, and they press their backs together to fight the wave of soldiers.

Sakamoto will inevitably kill someone in this battle - if he would stop holding back Sakamoto could be one of the Joui's most deadly soldiers - and he will inevitably feel guilty about it. He'll probably wander into some corner and throw up, and laugh about land sickness and spinning too fast, and he'll pick up the pieces without missing a single shard of his apparently immortal heart.

And he will do it again and again and again, until he dies or the war ends, and Gintoki isn't stupid, he knows which is more likely to happen.

They are in the middle of a battle; Gintoki does not shut his eyes.

"You'd better survive," he tells Sakamoto, sweeping his sword in a devastating arc and blinking blood from his eyes. Behind him, Sakamoto parries a blade with ease, disengaging and stepping back, then lunging forward lightning-fast to sink his sword into an Amanto's belly.

Sakamoto laughs. "Of course! Ya better come out alive too, Kintoki!"

"It's not Kintoki, dammit!"

-x-

"How many damned recruits do they even have?!" Gintoki snarls, gritting his teeth as his sword tears a ragged gash across a soldier's chest. His arms and hands are blood-slick and dripping.

"Ahah!" Sakamoto's laugh is weak and shaky, and when his back hits Gintoki's his shoulders are slumped inwards with exhaustion. Gintoki swipes his foot violently across the bloody ground, pushing aside a pile of innards and limbs. There are so many bodies in front of him, and so many enemies left to kill.

He takes another slash at an Amanto, arms shaking, and behind him Sakamoto decapitates a man in a violent slash.

They stagger backwards into each other, pressing their backs together to keep standing. Sakamoto's back is shaking against his and Gintoki is probably no better. The soldiers are pressing in, swords gleaming and eyes hard.

"Stop!" The voice is as sharp and hard as steel, and for a wild, desperate moment Gintoki wonders if it's their comrades coming as backup.

Sakamoto's ribs stop heaving against Gintoki's back, as if he can't breathe, as if he's frozen, and automatically Gintoki's blood stops cold. He doesn't turn around, because he's got to guard Sakamoto's back, because taking his eyes off the enemy might get him killed.

"What?" Gintoki demands. Sakamoto doesn't say a word. "Dammit, Bakamoto, what the hell is going on back there?"

"Turn around," the voice says, low and cold, "and set down your sword, or we'll kill these hostages."

Gintoki can't even find it in him to feel surprised at anything but the fact that it took them this long to present that ultimatum. If anything, he'd have expected that to happen hours earlier.

But then again, most soldiers value honour. Most people don't want to kill innocents without reason. Maybe they were hesitating, on account of that, until Gintoki and Sakamoto killed one too many of their friends.

"Oi," Gintoki says, and he doesn't let his voice waver. " _Oi_. Tatsuma. Are they telling the truth?"

"Ahaha," Sakamoto says, then, "Kintoki," and his voice is something like numb.

Gintoki turns around.

There's a buzz-cut soldier holding a sword against a man's neck, and there's a little girl and a woman kneeling on the bloody ground, crimson seeping into the knees of their kimonos. A little boy with brown hair and defiant eyes is glaring up at the soldiers, even if he's shaking and pressed against his mother's side.

That's a family on the ground, Gintoki thinks, and he feels overwhelmingly sick. Sakamoto is staring wide-eyed at them, not moving, barely breathing, face as pale as the faces of the corpses on the road.

"You sick bastards," Gintoki breathes.

"You forced us into this," the man says. He's got greying hair and cracked, breaking eyes, like he's just watched his world shatter around him. Gintoki knows the feeling, he's watched friends die before, but this… "Drop your weapons."

Gintoki's white-knuckled fingers pry away from his sword's hilt slowly, one by one, and his sword clangs onto the ground. Sakamoto's blade drops beside it.

"Ahaha, Kintoki," Sakamoto says, and Gintoki cuts a sharp look over to him. Sakamoto is smiling his business smile, his game smile, that grin that can hide a million thoughts and feelings in that permed head. Gintoki feels every limb tense in preparation for what the idiot's planned. "They took four people."

"Aa," Gintoki says, and thinks: _one_. "Bastards, huh?" Two, three-

- _four_.

And the world explodes.

-x-

"You crazy bastard!" Gintoki yells, slamming his sword into a soldier's gut and hauling the man and daughter to their feet. Sakamoto grabs the woman and the boy, and they shove the family forward. "When the hell did you get explosives?!"

"Ahaha! You must always be prepared, Kintoki!"

Gintoki hacks smoke from his lungs and thrusts his sword into the blurry figure of an Amanto's head. He yanks it back and the metal pulls from its skull with a wet squelch. With his other hand, he pushes the lagging boy forward and the child stumbles.

With a snarl, Gintoki wraps an arm around the boy's stomach and hauls the child beneath his arm. They need to get the family to safety, then they can try to get out of the town and lead the Amanto away, which they should have done hours ago. This is why Gintoki isn't and will never be a tactician.

"Bakamoto! You know this place. Where the hell do we go?"

"This place has changed a lot in the last few years, Kintoki!"

"You don't know where to go?!"

"Ahahaha! Right, right!" Sakamoto swerves to the right and Gintoki scrambles after him, clutching the frightened boy to his chest. The smoke has thinned and they can actually see about a meter in front of their faces; Gintoki looks over to see Sakamoto carrying the girl in his left arm.

"What the hell, idiot, I thought you are saying I was right!"

"I was saying you were right, then I said go right!"

"Be clearer, dammit!" They've run into a dead-end; Gintoki stops and stares, eyes wide.

"Ahaha! Wrong way! U-turn!"

"Oi! Get your directions right, Tatsuma!"

Gintoki whirls around, prodding the man and the woman forward, and starts running again, back towards the thick smoke, and all he can think is that there's no damn time-

-he slams into a person, shifting to collide shoulder-first so that the boy doesn't feel the impact. He levels his sword at the person's neck and sees green eyes glaring back at him.

"… Bakasugi?"

"You idiot," Takasugi snarls, fisted hand slamming onto the top of Gintoki's head. "We've been hunting for you all day. Where the hell is Tatsuma?"

"Ahahaha! Bakasugi! You came!"

"Shuddup!" Takasugi glares at Sakamoto, and Sakamoto laughs.

"Ahahaha! That's great! You can take the kid!"

"What? No!"

"Where's Zura?" Sakamoto asks, trying to peel the little girl from his yukata - "come on, Bakasugi's actually really nice-"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura," Katsura says, stepping up beside Takasugi. "And the girl is scared of you, Takasugi."

"Why the hell would you be scared of someone so short?" Gintoki asks. Sakamoto laughs.

"Incoming," Katsura warns, and Gintoki sets the on the ground to stand with his parents and sister; turns around to face the soldiers pouring into the street.

He backs up, the family of four safe between the four of them, and holds out his bloody sword.

"Why did you come?" Gintoki asks, in the breath before the soldiers attack.

Takasugi draws his sword. "Did you think we wouldn't miss that idiot's laugh?"

-x-

They call Sakamoto the Dragon of Katsurahama after that battle. Sakamoto, who's proud of strength but not of killing, smiles whenever anyone asks why.

"I grew up in Katsurahama," he says, smiling like that explains everything.

Katsura smiles and shakes his head, Takasugi grins his sharp grin, and Gintoki snorts and understands.

 **-x-**

 **A/N: This was a birthday present for my friend who loves Sakamoto and action, and I decided what the heck, I'll just post it here. I hope y'all like it!**

 **Please drop a review if you have time! They make me really, really happy and really motivate me! :)**

 **God bless! Have a great day!**


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